3.11 FLY Kites of Hope

March 11th marked a year since the earthquake and disaster on Mainland Japan. The Japan YMCA organized a kite flying event, for people all around Japan, and the world, to participate in. In Okinawa, they held the event in Ginowan, near Tropical Beach. It wasn't a beautiful day, but it was windy and that was good enough to fly a kite. We heard about it through a friend and decided to check it out. The idea was that everyone would fly kites at the same time, uniting hearts around the world in remembrance.
Kites of Hope pictures around Japan

Olivia's Dora kite was having a hard time flying, so this man was nice enough to give Olivia a tail in hopes it would help:

Worked out pretty well. Who knew a tail would help flight? :)
Eventually we traded in for a YMCA kite that flew super high:

She did a great job!

Standing on a map of Okinawa:

Roller Slide Sunday

So after spending 3.5 years here, we finally have people come here we knew from Moody - 5 months before we leave. Oh the irony. Anyway, since we had some new friends come in, we decided to take the, site-seeing. I've seen this roller slide park from the highway before, but never knew how to get down there. Well we took the time to get lost and figure it out on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and we were loving the nice weather, wanting to soak it up and not stay inside. We ended up parking a little ways from the park and walking down to it. Here's the scenery along our way.


If you see the roofs down below to the right of the highway - that's the park.


It has a giant roller slide. And Olivia wanted to go down it!


And Daddy too, of course. Look how high they are!


It was a loooong slide!


But she loved it!


Afterwards she found some slides her own size! Going...


Going...


Gone. Down on her belly!


Cheese! Fun day at the park!


-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

China Trip - Beijing Part 2

This post completes Beijing from our China Trip. I've only included a few pictures, then the links to the rest of the albums. There are just too many pics to share!
The Summer Palace:

Check out all of the beautiful pictures of the Summer Palace Click Here!
Sacred Way:

Find out what these animals are all about in my album of the Sacred Way to Ming Tombs Click Here

Temple of Heaven:

Learn what the Temple of Heaven is and why Olivia is wearing this crazy hat! Click Here for Temple of Heaven pictures.

Forbidden City:

See More of the Forbidden City Click Here

Whale Watching

What do you think we are dressed to do? Go Whale watching!! Once a year (Jan-March) the Humpback Whales swim through the waters around Okinawa to mate and raise their young. Olivia stayed home with a sitter and Mom and daddy ventured out on a whale watching adventure! I'm glad Olivia wasn't there, because the water was rough and it felt like a roller coaster ride the entire time. Luckily the Dramamine kicked in for us and we didn't get sick :)

It was a little wet, windy, and rainy, but YES the whales did cooperate! We saw many jumps and surfaces. The jumps were mostly from the baby. I think we pretty much followed a mom and baby around the entire time. They weren't shy!

This is a close-up of the baby:

And the Baby's tail! I love this shot!! So excited I got it!

The momma surfacing...

Baby flipping:

You can see the mom and baby together here:

The baby's mouth is open here:

Those are just some of the pictures...

See more of the Whale Watching pictures in my album HERE (Click)

November 2011 - China Trip - Beijing Part 1

As most of you know, we went to China in November. as you might have guessed I took a zillion pictures (yes, that is the actually number of pictures taken, haha). I have been trying to figure the best way to share them. I want you to be able to see them all! So you can! I've included some on here, and then published albums online where you can scroll through all of the pictures. Since there are a zillion, I'll post the albums in spurts to give you time look at them! So sit back, relax, and enjoy viewing our trip of a lifetime.

With the China trip we went to three cities: Beijing, Shang hai, and Xi An. We traveled for 8 eight days and took about 5 different flights. We went with a guided tour, so we didn't have to worry about anything. It was wonderful. They told us what to do every second of the trip. They even told us when to pee! (Except for the special stop they had to make for Daddy to go potty. You'd think it would have been one of the kids that needed to go so bad to make a special stop - But no, it was our Daddy :)) It definitely wasn't a relaxing trip. It was go, Go, GO! And cold, Cold, COLD! We all got a little tired, a little sick, and a tad cranky. But. Like I said. It was the trip of a lifetime. And it was wonderful. So glad we were able to see all of the things we did. So much history filled the trip. I found myself recalling bits here and there from HS Global Studies. If only I paid attention a little bit more back then! But nonetheless, now when Livvy learns about it in school, she can bring in pictures and say "I went there!"

We started our trip in Beijing. We spent about 2 and a half days there. Lots filled this city: The Great Wall, The Zoo, The Summer Palace, The Temple of Heaven, Ming's Tomb, and more!
We started out in Tiananmen Square. We all know the bloody history there. Sunny, our tour guide leader throughout China, just kinda glossed over that part.
This is the first picture, it's across from the square, just a scenic shot I guess.

Mao Zedong - His picture was everywhere

On the Square:

Olivia on Tiananmen Square:

We drove past and saw where the 2008 Olympics were. The cube building is the pool, the "bird's nest" is right next to it. Also - China was dirty! So many people and so much pollution. you can see how hazy it was in this picture:

We ate noodle, noodle, noodle, and dumpling, dumpling dumpling. The food was great (most of the time) and the restaurants were neat. In one, you were able to dress up in China garb and have your picture taken. We were able to con Olivia into doing it! (note: The hat is actually hers. We were roped into buying it. It's a Mongolian Princess hat. There are lots of peddlers all over the place, just eager to take crazy tourist's money!)

I loved these old high heels. They put the heel in the middle for better balance. Genius! (History note: The men would tie up the women's feet and force them to not be able to grow so that they had small feet and were not able to run away. Wow.)

We made a stop to a Jade factory. We learned all about jade and how to tell the real from the fake. Here a man is making one of those dragon balls. Something amazing - They make those balls from one piece of jade and just carve within it!

Did you know the 2008 Olympic medals had jade in them?

Happy Buddha!

Jade boat - one piece of jade. Guess how much?

Yikes! That much! Olivia don't touch!

Since we weren't spending the big $$$ during the shopping part - we had fun with pictures. Olivia wanted to pose with him:

Oh No! Daddy's being eaten by a... Jade panther?

And the amazing trip to the Great Wall. It was a beautiful clear day!

Blue sky and the old wall:

Here we are at the start of our climb. Olivia had the best seat in the house... errr wall!

Low Bridge!

Cheese! (let's hope they don't run off with our camera and zillion China pictures!)

Click below to see more Great Wall pictures!
The Great Wall Pictures

And we took a trip to the Zoo! Look at this face!!

See more adorable faces by clicking below:

More Zoo Pictures

Ok, that's it for now. What do you think?
More China pictures soon!